Some soccer followers are flipping out over cheerleaders.
The Minnesota Vikings obtained an onslaught of backlash on social media after it employed two male cheerleaders, Louie Conn and Blaize Shiek.
Earlier this month, the NFL crew softly introduced on Instagram that its cheer squad had a couple of new additions.
“The next generation of cheer has arrived!” a caption learn alongside a video that prominently featured Conn doing a backflip.
Quite a few followers instantly known as foul on the crew’s determination to rent two males who look like extremely certified for the job.
“I just lost all of my respect for the Vikings,” one Instagram person stated in response to the crew’s submit that included Conn.
“I’m not a Viking fan no more,” one other echoed.
“Just trying to piss off fans with this one huh?” one other person complained.
The Vikings’ submit isn’t the one one getting warmth. A TikTok video of Shiek dancing with a feminine colleague has been making the rounds on Elon Musk’s now extremely conservative platform, X. Amid the numerous homophobic feedback aimed toward Shiek on X, one person plainly said: “I don’t have a problem with male cheerleaders, but I do have a problem with male cheerleaders acting like women.”
But evidently the Vikings are standing agency of their determination to rent Conn and Shiek.
“Male cheerleaders have been part of previous Vikings teams and have long been associated with collegiate and professional cheerleading,” the crew stated in a press release to NBC Information final week. “We support all of our cheerleaders and are proud of the role they play as ambassadors of the organization.”
The crew advised NBC that no followers have canceled their season tickets due to the choice.
Brooks Kraft through Getty Photos
And for the reason that backlash appears to be coming from extra conservative corners of the web, it also needs to be famous that former Republican presidents George W. Bush, Ronald Regan and Dwight Eisenhower had been additionally cheerleaders of their youth.
Conn and Shiek have responded to the hullabaloo on social media as effectively.
Conn merely pinned a selfie of himself and Shiek decked out of their Viking uniforms to his Instagram account.
The caption reads: “wait…did someone say our name?”
Shiek pinned the identical submit to his Instagram account, however has upped the ante a bit greater than Conn.
On Monday, Shiek posted an Instagram story that reveals musician Lizzo singing the lyric, “New man on the Minnesota Vikings” from her 2019 hit, “Truth Hurts” on one aspect, and on the opposite, Conn and Shiek shaking their pompoms alongside two feminine cheerleaders.
Screenshot @blaize_shiek through Instagram
Shiek printed one other TikTok over the weekend that options him and Conn appearing goofy as audio of Nicki Minaj saying, “Um, if you don’t like me, that’s fine. But, you know, watch your mouth,” performs within the background.
